3/1/18 Police beat

Conway officers confiscated more than $3,000 and nearly a pound of marijuana from a 48-year-old man during an afternoon traffic stop on Saturday.

According to an incident report, a Conway officer initially stopped the 48-year-old driving a white Chevrolet pickup truck for pulling a trailer that did not have a license plate shortly before 3 p.m. Saturday on Friendship Road. In his report, the officer also noted the trailer's left light was out.

The officer said he could immediately smell marijuana when he walked up to the suspect's window and questioned the driver if there was any marijuana in the vehicle or if he'd recently smoked in the truck.

The driver said he did not have any marijuana in the vehicle but had been around someone who smoked earlier that day. While handing over his driver's license, registration and insurance information, the driver also informed the officer he had a concealed carry permit but that he did not have his weapon on him.

Because the officer could smell marijuana, he asked for consent to search the truck. During his search, the officer said the marijuana smell became "overwhelming" near the floorboard. At this point the officer asked the suspect where he would be able to find the marijuana, because he "knew there was some in the vehicle."

"He told me that the marijuana was on the passenger side of the vehicle behind a blue bucket," the incident report reads. "[The suspect] said it was going to be a little bit. I asked him if he was talking about grams. He said that it was more than grams. I asked was he talking about pounds. [He] said that it was not that much."

From there, the officer was able to locate a compressed brick of marijuana that weighed about three quarters of a pound. The marijuana was seized as evidence, along with $3,140 in cash that was found in the suspect's wallet and on his person.

The suspect was charged with possession of a controlled substance with purpose to deliver, possession of drug paraphernalia and defective or improper tail lams and reflectors and taken to the county jail.

Just one minute prior to this traffic stop, another officer had stopped one of the suspect's family members for careless driving and had also confiscated a large amount of cash and some marijuana.

The family member was cited for careless driving because his view was obstructed by a stack of papers sitting in the windshield. During the stop, the officer also found some Oxycodone pills, 4.75 ounces of marijuana and $2,876 in cash, which were all seized as evidence.